In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, Paul tells us that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. That means He took all of our sins and shame and buried them in the grave because we couldn't bury them ourselves, and He restored us into a beautiful relationship with Him again, all through Jesus Christ. But then Paul goes on to say that God gave us this ministry of reconciliation! That means people in this world can be reconciled to Christ by hearing it from you because God has given that ministry to you. Your pastor is not going to reach everybody. Some people may only experience the ministry of reconciliation through their encounters with you. That's the good news of the gospel: That God saved us through Christ, and now we can spread this wonderful news!

But scripture also tells us that God is holy and righteous, and to remain in a relationship with our God Who perfectly loves us, we must submit to His will for our lives. This isn't a difficult concept to understand when we truly think it through. Parents tell their children what to do to care for them and help them live a truly healthy and fulfilled life. A parent who never challenges the selfish and nearsighted ways of their child is not showing their child love: That is its own form of abuse. When we share the good news of God's love and reconciliation through Jesus, we share both the reality of God's perfect love and the reality of obedience to God's perfect will for us.

Check out Pastor Bethany's word on the significance of God's ministry of reconciliation as she continues our series, "Share God."

We are not called to hoard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has called us to walk into dark places in this world and shine the light of God's forgiveness and love. We have the hope of the world in our hearts, and the worst thing we can do is keep that hope to ourselves. As the world becomes increasingly dark and hopeless, it's easy to look on with frustration and disgust and throw up our hands, condemning everyone. But God does not respond that way: He sees those trapped in darkness and desires for them to hear the truth and be led into the light. People are not God's enemy, the devil, and his demons are.

The Bible tells us in Luke 19:10 that Jesus that the reason he came to earth was to "seek and save the lost." That means Jesus does not look at hopeless people trapped in darkness with contempt: He looks at them with hope and eagerness, because they are the very people he came to save. Jesus has prepared for us a lifetime of being saved, healed, sanctified, and made whole, and God has tasked us to share this salvation with others fervently.

Listen to our Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun expound on one the importance of sharing God as we continue in this sermon series based on our 3 purposes as a church!

The gospel of Jesus is life to those who need it.

Humans have choices. We can choose life or choose death. God in his great sovereignty has given us the ability of free will. You can choose to do good or choose to do evil. Deuteronomy chapter 30 tells us that God places before us choices of life and death, blessing and cursing. This is very closely tied to the ancient story of Adam and Eve, where God gives them the ability to choose life from the tree of life or choose death from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Think about how incredible this is! God allows us to be in a relationship with Him, the infinite and all-powerful God of the universe wants to be in a relationship with US! This instinctively means that we have a choice: We can choose to be in that relationship with God or we can walk away from it, acting within our God-given free world. Ever since Adam and Eve stepped away from their relationship with God by choosing evil, mankind has been dealing with the consequences of sin and death. But the gospel of Jesus, who takes that sin away, brings life to us, and we need it!

Check out this powerfully deep message from Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun on the significance how important it is to share the reality of the gospel.